The S-Files
by Alobomb
Summary: Agent Maxine Caulfield is a crack photojournalist-turned-FBI Agent working the Drug Desk, but when she's assigned to Agent Chloe Price working the S-Files desk, everything she knows is called into question. What explanation is there for these cases Agent Price keeps finding? What really happened to Agent Amber, Agent Price's last partner? And what ties Max to the missing Agent?
1. Episode One - Part One - Pilot

The fluorescent lights on the ceiling above mixed with the natural afternoon light streaming in from the window, creating a strange mixture of homely and clinical in the Assistant Director's waiting room. A young woman sat with a sense of forced stillness on a faux-leather chair next to the door to the office proper. She kept her face neutral and inscrutable, a practiced expression born from years of FBI work. All that betrayed her nervousness was her repeated attempts to push the left side of her shoulder-length brunette bob cut behind her ear, despite it being too short to reliably stay there. It was a nervous tic that she never could seem to break.

A small beep came from Secretary Ward's computer. She looked at it a moment before facing the young woman. "Agent Caulfield?"

Young Agent Caulfield jumped slightly in her seat, then tried to make it look natural by turning it into a lean on the arm of the chair. It did not look natural. "Yes Dana?"

"The Assistant Director will see you now." Agent Caulfield nodded once and thanked the Secretary as she got up and walked to the door. After a deep breath, she braced herself and entered the office.

It seemed like A.D Madsen wasn't as much of a fan of fluorescent light as the rest of the FBI. His office was primarily lit by the line of windows on the outer wall, the rest from a small lamp on his desk. The desk itself was a gorgeous mahogany thing, it dominated the room from just a little away from the outer wall, which meant that on a bright day like today Madsen was terrifyingly backlit, which didn't do much for Caulfield's already shot nerves.

She closed the door and promptly froze at the doorway as he finished up whatever paperwork he had been working on. She stood there for a moment before starting to gingerly step into the room proper.

Madsen glanced up and spoke over his bushy mustache. "Just come in Maxine, you're not in trouble."

She smiled and busied herself with making her way to the chair on the other side of his desk. Sitting down was awkward, she only wore flats, but she suspected that even in heels her feet would just barely touch the ground.. "Just Max, sir, if we're going to be so informal."

"Hm. Good point. Agent Caulfield, you're being reassigned." He said bluntly, not waiting for her reaction before continuing. "Are you familiar with the S-Files, Agent Caulfield?"  
Max paused, wracking her brain for a moment. "I think I remember them being mentioned to me… sir."

"Well, I'll jog your memory then." He said, his mustache following his mouth down slightly into a frown. "They are a collection of cold cases, unexplained phenomena, and overall silly B.S that the Bureau couldn't be bothered to throw out. The S in S-Files stands for Strange. Strange Files, you understand?"

Her brow furrowed as she considered this. "Yes Sir, but what does that have to do with me? I'm not aware of anyone currently working any cases like that."

The Assistant Director sighed and leaned back in his chair. "No, I thought not. There is one Agent currently assigned to the S-Files, though for reasons you'll understand shortly we haven't made a big hubbub about her findings."

He rubbed his forehead in apparent frustration before continuing. "That Agent is Chloe Price. She started at the Bureau shortly before you, a real Rising Star around here, along with her partner. The two of them cracked some big cases, did some real good work for a long time. But a year ago that all changed. Agent Rachel Amber, Agent Price's partner, disappeared during an investigation in Oregon. She's officially MIA but… it's been a year, the MIA is only still in effect on Agent Price's insistence."

Max nodded. "So Price hasn't given up on her yet?"

He sighed. "No, and here's where it gets complicated. When questioned about Agent Amber's disappearance, Agent Price consistently has claimed it was some kind of… supernatural force that they were investigating that had taken her."

"Supernatural? How so?" Max asked, leaning forward now.

"I'd rather not get into it, besides, you'll get a chance to ask her yourself." He smiled wryly.

"Pardon?" Max's eyes widened.

"That's right, you're Agent Price's new partner, effective immediately you are being reassigned to the S-Files." He said, watching for her reaction.

Max narrowed her eyes and furrowed her brow. "But… why sir? Is the Bureau unsatisfied with my recent work?"

He shook his head. "On the contrary, Caulfield, I've found it exemplary myself. Frankly, the one they're not happy with is Agent Price, she's very close to losing her job if she keeps up the way she is. Her work with the S-Files has resulted only in inconclusive reports purporting wild theories with little or no evidence. Your assignment with Price will be threefold. You are to take over the writing of S-Files case reports, you are to assist with Agent Price's investigations, and you are to attempt to debunk or bring down to Earth Agent Price's theories whenever possible."

"But why sir? If she's lost it a little, which it sounds like she has, isn't it for the best that she's let go?" She stalled for time as she tried to think of a way to get out of the order.

He sighed and spun his chair around, looking out at the bright day, and casting a long shadow over Max's seat. "You see Agent Caulfield, I've worked with Price on a few cases, and she truly is a brilliant Agent. She has such a keen mind for solving problems, I suspect she'll surprise even you, 'SuperMax.'"

She frowned and sat a little taller in her chair. "Sir. I am not a fan of that nickname."

He turned his chair sideways enough to glance at her, after taking in her more serious body language he shrugged and turned back. "Hm, alright. In any case, I, and some other powers that be, don't want her terminated, and this seems like the best solution to get her back on track. You're a trusted Agent, Caulfield, we'll take your word for Price's mental state and capabilities."

She kept her position for a second, holding Madsen's gaze before dropping it and slumping in her chair slightly. "Alright sir." She sighed. "Where can I find this Agent Price?"

The mustachioed man suddenly beamed at her. "Very good Maxine! I suspect you'll enjoy yourself with this assignment much more than you're expecting."

He stood up and walked to the door, prompting her to rise and follow him. "The S-Files office number is B04, you should be able to find your way there."

She stood outside his office and looked at him momentarily before comprehending what he said. "Wait. The basement? You're actually reassigning me to a basement offi-"

"I look forward to your reports Agent Caulfield!" He spoke over her as he closed the door.

Max worked her mouth up and down a few times, then gritted her teeth as she considered the wisdom in bursting back into his office. Whatever. She thought. It doesn't seem quite right to be upset at him for this, it sounds like he's had me in mind to do this for a while, may be a chance to get in his good books. She sighed and gave a small wave to Secretary Ward, and left to pack up her office.

* * *

Click

Not bad. A shot of her pile of boxes sitting on her desk, filled with various files, stationary, reference books, and other personal belongings. Max had always liked midday lighting. She sighed and plopped onto her chair one last time. At least this chair could be set low enough to rest her feet on the floor. She liked this office, it reminded her of the first office she'd ever worked in, back on the west coast. Smiling, she thought about all the friends she'd left behind there. Warren had always pined after her, but he was her closest friend back home, and he wasn't a bad person, just… awkward. When she explained her intentions on quitting journalism to him he was quite aghast. He didn't understand, and probably never would.

Max shook herself out of her reverie and stood back up, taking one last look around. Nodding to herself, she took her camera off of her desk and put the lanyard loop around her neck, took her boxes, and made for the elevator.

* * *

Ding

The elevator ground to a halt as it reached the basement level, and the doors slowly opened. Max peered into the dark hallway a little nervously. Wide-eyed, she started to make her way to the fourth room down. You'd think in a basement they'd make the lighting more of a focus than upstairs. Shrugging, she squinted as she tried to make out the room numbers.  
 _B01, B03… ah it'll be behind me._ She turned around and, in the process, nearly collided with a woman coming out of B04.

"Hey, watch it!" A voice, deep but still feminine, reprimanded her as she narrowly avoided dropping her boxes on the floor.

Max stumbled a bit while she tried to keep her footing and grip on her boxes. "I-I'm sorry!" She finally looked up at the person she had nearly run into, her eyes now having adjusted slightly to the dim lighting.

 _Ho-ly shit._ That was all Max could think, her mouth hanging open as she looked at the other woman. She was gorgeous. And not in the way that you'd expect a woman at the FBI to look gorgeous, this lady looked more along the lines of "high school drug dealer I had a crush on" gorgeous. Her hair was dyed a bright blue, not quite common for the FBI, and her plaid dress shirt that's sleeves had been carelessly bunched up just below her shoulders revealed a large tattoo that wound it's way down her right arm.

Realizing she had been staring, Max closed her mouth and tried to regain a bit of control over the situation. "Uh, h-hi!" She squeaked, a blush making it's warmth felt on her face as she in no way gained any control at all.

The blue haired agent responded. "Uh, hey?" Oh God. That voice just made her melt. _Why am I so gay?_ She thought despairingly.

"I-I'm Agent Maxine Caulfield!" She winced as she heard her voice much louder in the quiet basement than she'd intended it. As the other woman smirked at her she suddenly was very thankful for the boxes in her sore arms. She didn't want the other agent to know how sweaty her palms were.

The taller agent's eyes widened in understanding. "Oh! That makes more sense. Here, I was just heading out but I can stay to help you get settled." She moved to grab the boxes from Max's hands. "Let me just help you with those."

Max handed them off and looked on in slight awe as the other agent easily carried her belongings that she had struggled to heave through the rest of the building to the emptier of two desks in the room beyond. _She's… ripped._ Max quickly set the thought aside before it dominated her thinking. _I'm being so unprofessional. Shape up Max!_ The brunette agent surreptitiously wiped her hands on her pants and entered room B04.

"I guess Madsen probably already gave you the briefing, but I'm Chloe Price, currently assigned to the S-Files." She finished setting down Max's boxes and turned around, grinning. "And you're my new partner!"

Max smiled back as naturally as she could. "Y-Yeah, I guess so." She looked around the office. It was cluttered, but less in an academic way, and more in a homey way. The clutter was eclectic too, on the desk that commanded the room it was mostly papers, but on the walls and various shelves throughout were maps, reports, huge file folders, strange diagrams, something that looked like a picture of an autopsy, and many trophies for various contests and tournaments fighting for space on top of the room's many filing cabinets. On the wall behind the main desk there was also what looked to be a custom printed poster. It looked like a picture of a thick grove in an old growth forest. In the center of the grove and, consequently, the poster, there was a small ring of mushrooms that Max recognized as what people called a fairy circle. On the bottom of the poster in block white lettering was the phrase "Belief is Truth."

She tore her gaze away from the room's décor and looked back at Agent Price. "So what type of work do you… actually do with the S-Files?" She asked. The tattooed agent looked thoughtful for a second before responding.

"I mean, the same work anyone in the FBI does right? I keep an eye out and an ear to the ground for reports relevant to the content of the S-Files, and when there's nothing I mess around with cold cases." She smiled a little wryly at Max. "Only difference is, the content of the S-Files isn't always stuff that less open-minded agents would take seriously." Max nodded slowly and kept looking at punk looking agent, who sighed.

"You're wondering what's with the dyed hair and the arm tattoo, right?" Caught, Max looked away and coughed awkwardly.

"Uh, the thought had crossed my mind, yeah. It's not exactly protocol." Chloe smiled and shook her head, then made her way towards Max while pulling up her sleeve.

"My last partner and I were part of a bit of a deep cover op on the West coast. Biker gang that had been getting more into drug trafficking than most do, no local cops were willing to try and earn their trust so they asked the FBI." She sighed and looked away, reminiscing. "I've got my motorcycle license, plus job experience in a mechanic's shop, so I was a natural choice. Plus at the time me and my partner were a package deal so..." She sighed, and tried to shake her head clear of thoughts of her missing partner. "Anyway, we needed to look the part, so the bureau paid for this sweet-ass tattoo, and covered the cost for the hair dye. They don't cover it anymore, but I'm kinda fond of the look, so I got permission to keep it up."

Max examined the tattoo, it really was gorgeous. A red ribbon traced it's way around and through a bushel of leaves and flowers that were just starting to bud. Blue butterflies flitted around the tops of the plants, while brown roots dangled from the bottom. Nestled in the center of the piece was a yellowed, aging human skull, a morbid, leering grin among the natural beauty of the rest of the piece. Inadvertently, Max found herself touching the tattoo slightly along the curve of the toned agent's muscles. She suddenly felt the warmth of Agent Price's skin very, very acutely. She jumped back and looked up at the taller agent apologetically.

"Hey, hey, it's okay Caulfield, I get it." She said. Her delicate eyebrows were raised in amusement though, and her mouth was once again in the shape of that damn smirk. _God… that expression is going to be the death of me._ Max despaired once more.

"Right! Yeah… sorry." She said as she blushed made herself busy unpacking her office supplies. Chloe suddenly jumped as her gaze happened to land on the clock.

"Oh shit! I'm gonna be late!" She quickly gathered up the backpack that she had had on when she first ran into Max. "Make yourself at home, I'm done for the day, so we'll get started tomorrow morning, sound good Caulfield?"

"Yeah, of course! And, uh, j-just Max, please. Unless we're with, y'know, Madsen or some-… something." She just managed to get a reply out before Chloe reached the door, on hearing Max's request though she stopped and looked back over her shoulder.

"And you can just call me Chloe, I'm not big into the whole formality thing. Later Max." She gave a small wave and left, letting the door swing closed beyond her. Max sighed, releasing the tension that she'd been unconsciously holding in her shoulders. This partnership could prove… difficult for her.

 _Well. I better unpack._ She thought, and got to it.

* * *

Max sipped on her light brown coffee. Three milk, three sugar, she'd never been one for bitterness. She sighed. I probably should've asked Agent Pr- Chloe when exactly morning was for her. The brunette let out another sigh and pulled out her phone, pulling up a sudoku app to pass the time. Seven medium difficulty sudoku puzzles later, she closed the app in frustration. _I guess she's used to keeping her own hours, being the only person working this desk._ Didn't stop it from frustrating the hell out of Max though. Struck by a sudden impulse, she pulled up her phone's browser, and then opened Google.

"Rachel Amber FBI." The search results showed a few articles about noteworthy cases that her and Chloe had been relevant on, and an article about the press conference where her disappearance was revealed three months after it happened. She tapped on that, curious what was revealed. It turned out to be very, very little. She scrolled down and stopped at a random point and started reading again. "The Arcadia Bay native had moved to the East coast to-" She stopped reading, her eyes wide. Arcadia Bay? There was no way…

Sure enough, a few minutes later she sat looking at the top of the list of members of her high school year's graduating class. Fourth from the top, "Rachel Amber," eight names afterwards, "Maxine Caulfield." She leaned back in her chair and exhaled. What an incredibly odd coincidence. She looked closer at some of the pictures that her google search had wrought. She didn't recognize her, which was... surprising. Even if she had convinced herself for most of her life that she was straight, it didn't stop her from paying very close attention to other women. Plus she didn't have a particularly large graduating class... _Weird._ She thought, then locked and pocketed her phone and took another sip of her coffee.

* * *

The better part of an hour later, Max was jolted awake from the light nap she had fallen into by a thump and a muffled "Ow! Fuck!" from outside the office's door. She heard keys being fumbled with and worked out what was going on.

"It's unlocked!" Max spoke up, immediately sound outside the door ceased.

Max strained her ears a little nervously before the silence was broken by the agent on the other side. "Oh, right!" And with that Chloe barged in. "Morning Cau- Max." It quickly became apparent what had been causing her difficulty. She carried two large pairs of thick treaded rain boots in her arms.

Having resolved to keep her cool today, Max just leaned back in her chair. "Morning, Chloe." She casually took a sip of her now cold coffee. _Ew._ Hearing her tone, the blue haired agent shot her a look of confusion and- was that worry?

"I, uh, hope you weren't waiting too long, right?" Max looked at the clock, now showing 11:49 AM, and then back to Chloe.

"At the drugs desk we got in at nine AM sharp." She let her flat tone imply the rest of her thoughts on Chloe's tardiness.

The her credit, Chloe laughed sheepishly and tried to take it in stride. "Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore, right?" She looked up at Max apologetically.

Those eyes… The brunette agent blushed and looked away, a smile coming to her face unannounced. "N-No, I guess not." She shook her head clear. "So, what's the plan today? And what's with those boots?"

Chloe grinned at the shorter woman. "I've got these boots because we are going to Louisiana!" Max stared at her for a few quiet moments. And then a few more. The smile on Chloe's face became strained.

"Why, exactly, are we going to Louisiana?" Max asked, thinking about the massage therapy that she had booked two days from then.

That seemed to fire Chloe up again, now determined to prove it was worth going, she dumped the boots onto the floor beside her desk and quickly unslung a laptop bag from around her shoulder. She pulled a sleek looking laptop from the bag and set it on her desk. She reached around it in a practiced movement and snatched an HDMI cord that came down from the ceiling and connected it to the computer. Turning on the projector with a remote. She logged in, and as the desktop loaded Max regarded her background picture.

It looked like her graduating FBI training class from Quantico. After a moment Max recognized Chloe, tattooless and blonde haired, standing near the front center. In the front center was Rachel Amber. Max glanced at Chloe who simply sat, lost in thought in front of the machine.

"Chloe?" Max prompted. The taller agent gave a start and looked down.

"Sorry… just thinking about… you know, neverm-" Max cut her off.

"I'm so sorry about Agent Amber, Chloe." Max said impulsively. She immediately regretted her decision as Chloe's expression hardened. The tattooed agent looked at Max, her steely blue eyes piercing into her.

"Did Madsen already give you the official stance on Rachel?" Chloe asked, her deep voice infused with a forced evenness.

Max nodded once, startled by Chloe's sudden intensity. The blue haired agent suddenly got up and stalked over to the side of her desk that Max was sitting near and leaned back on it. Now much closer, she held Max's gaze with a frightening intensity.

"If we're going to be partners, I need you to understand something."Max nodded, wide eyed. "I'm not interested in denial, or delusions, or lies or fantasies. I only want the truth. That's why I asked to be assigned to the S-Files. And I need you to believe that I'm not crazy when I say these things. I have some ideas that a lot of people here think are outlandish, to put it mildly. But even if you disagree with me totally, I need you to understand that I'm coming from a place of rationality based on my experiences." She sighed suddenly, her shoulders drooped, and the fire in her eyes dimmed as if all the oxygen in the room had been used up by their burning.

"Rachel is still alive Max. I don't know where, I'm not entirely sure who took her, but I know she isn't dead." Max nodded, she… kind of understood actually.

"It would just be… hard to go on if I have you behind me rolling your eyes every five minutes." Max started to nod again, but Chloe's voice rang out. "Don't just nod again, please say something." The taller woman looked almost like she was curled up as she leaned over, her eyes averted from Max's face. Her expression looked nervous, even vulnerable.

Max stayed quiet for a moment as she considered how to phrase her response.

"I believe you Chloe." She began. "I can't guarantee I'll always agree with your conclusions but… no matter how 'outlandish' I promise I'll consider them seriously." She paused again, scrunching her brow as she made her decision. "And… I believe you that Rachel is still alive. You were there, you were her partner, you know her strengths better than anyone. And I think eventually, you'll find her." She paused one last time. "And… if it's in my power, I'll do whatever I can to help make that happen."

She looked up to gauge Chloe's reaction. Chloe had a large, genuine smile gracing her face, it radiated thankfulness and relief. Oh my God… dimples… Max looked away, suddenly very self-conscious of her earnest proclamation. _I do really mean it, I just… I really hope that Rachel is actually still alive… I don't want to impede Chloe from moving on._

"Thank you." The words were quiet, they came from the lowest part of Chloe's vocal register, and they rang in earnestness.

* * *

A few minutes later, the pictures Chloe wanted to show Max had been set up. Max noted as she watched the screen impassively that they were located in a folder dropped on Chloe's desktop (one of… many) simply titled "swamp…. sutff."

The series of pictures inside was noteably more mature than the misspelled name implied. Clicking through at a fair clip, Chloe started to explain.

"I've been interested in these incidents for a while now, long enough that I've got some contacts in the town that keep me updated." She stopped at one particularly gruesome photo of a man who's torso looked… shredded, essentially. Max paled slightly, but kept looking. There was something odd about the crime scene.

"You see it too, huh?" Chloe grinned at her and clicked on to the next picture. In this shot, it was clear that the crime scene was on the second floor of an observation post of some kind, the floor was only accessible via ladder.

"Officially ruled as an alligator attack. And I don't know about you, but I haven't seen many alligators able to shimmy their way up a ladder." Max's eyes narrowed as she examined the photo.

"Was he a hunter? Maybe a kill he thought was dead wasn't? Or did he maybe have a pet gator he could've brought up there that went berserk for some reason?" Max asked, trying to get a logical angle on the death.

"Nope, he was a maintenance worker for the Coast Guard." Chloe said. Max sighed.

"You said there's been other incidents?" Chloe nodded and started clicking further through the slideshow. Max would grow used to these briefings eventually, but this time her eyes grew wider and wider as she saw death after death that defied explanation. Some were also on a largely inaccessible second story, some were behind unbroken doors, some were both. Yet all shared the same M.O, the chest completely shredded and partially consumed.

"These incidents date back to 2000, the first was actually on New Year's Day of that year." Chloe said.

"The turn of the millennium…" Max muttered, trying to piece things together.

Chloe smiled at her clear interest. "So! More interested in hopping down to Louisiana with little old me now?" Her smile turned into a cheeky grin as Max sighed.

"Let me just call my massage therapist."

* * *

The plane shook and bumped in the turbulent, stormy air over North Carolina. Max's hands ached from the white knuckle grip she had been maintaining on the handrests since they had entered the stormy weather. Max glanced to her left. In the window seat beside her Chloe sat with her knees up on the back of the seat in front of her, her body curled low in the chair, obliviously playing some mobile game.

Feeling Max's gaze, Chloe glanced up at her. Max blanched as she unintentionally imagined how it would feel to have her head at such a weird angle in the turbulence.

"You doing okay Max?" Chloe asked, pausing her game and wiggling up out of her slouch.

"I don't do well with storms." Max replied flatly, staring intently at the headrest directly in front of her.

Chloe nodded sagely and squinted as if trying to remember the details of something. "My partner- my last partner also had issues with storms. I think she said there was a really terrible freak storm around her hometown when she was a kid. I always meant to look into it more but…" She looked away suddenly, almost guiltily, before continuing. "Anyway, her house and the one next door were totaled. Her mom didn't make it, was never able to deal with storms since then." The blue haired agent looked up at her partner.

Max's eyes were wide with shock, and tears were threatening to crash over the dam of her eyes to flood the rest of her face.

"I'm…. gonnathrowupgottagotothebathroom" She managed to choke out, all in one breath, before forcing herself up and stumbling to the rear of the plane.

* * *

 _What the fuck? What the fuck?_ Max's thoughts were a blur as she splashed cold water on her face and tried not to think about the wind twisting and pulling around them.  
What were the odds? Not only were her and Agent Amber from the same hometown but…  
No, she didn't have to think about that. She'd been doing so well. She tried the deep breathing exercises that her therapist had taught her in the years after the incident, but her breath kept catching in her throat. She sunk to her knees and leaned her forehead against the plastic sink and desperately kept trying to calm down. Outside, she noticed on the bare edges of her consciousness, she heard annoyed voices and grumbles, and then… Chloe's voice?

"Sorry about this, my bad, ya, no, my partner's in there. No, not my wife, we're FBI I- ugh, never mind, just move." Then a couple light knocks at the door.

"Max, you okay in there?" Max sighed and hefted herself to her feet.

"I-I'll be fine, Chloe." She turned the taps on again and splashed her face one last time before turning to open the door, revealing Chloe's worried face.

"Look I'm so, so sorry, I should've realised that that maybe wasn't the best story to tell someone who's afraid of storms, uh, here I can help you back to your seat." She reached out and grabbed Max's hand. Nodding mutely, Max did her best to settle her stomach, keeping her head down and trusting Chloe's lead.

When they got back to their seats, Chloe draped her leather jacket over the shivering Max, less queasy from the flight now, and more simply terrified of the weather.

"Hey Max… I uh, shouldn't be sharing these, probably, but I have some pretty strong sleeping pills that were prescribed to me. I could, uh, lend them to you, or something, if that would help… I'm sorry, again." Max thought for a moment, then turned and gave Chloe a small smile and nodded.

"Thanks Chloe." The taller agent's whole demeanor seemed to brighten, and she quickly turned to dig through her carry-on knapsack.

A few minutes later, Max had taken the pair of large white pills, and had fallen into a thankfully dreamless sleep.


	2. Episode One - Part Two - Pilot

_Ugh. I can't believe we just got assigned together and practically the first thing I do is give her a panic attack! Come on Chlo, shape up._

The quiet murmur of the other passengers on the plane disembarking started to die down. Chloe looked at the smaller agent curled up under her leather jacket, still totally conked out. A blush rose to her cheeks as she caught herself staring at Max. _It's her fault for looking like… that._

Chloe leaned over and gave her a gentle shake.

"Hey Max, wakey wakey eggs and bakey, we're here."

The smaller agent groaned and snuggled herself somehow even _deeper_ into the seat than she already was.

"Five more minutes…" Her cutely groggy voice said from the pile of leather and suit.

Chloe smirked. "It's looking a little rainy out there and I am _not_ going out without my jacket. So either you can get up now and give it to me, or…" she shifted her voice into her best threatening-biker-tone, and leaned over more, putting herself eye level with where Max's head was covered by the jacket, "We can do it the hard way."

Max poked her eyes over the edge of the jacket and quirked an eyebrow. "The _hard_ way?"

They held each other's gaze for a few seconds longer before they both burst into giggles as the mock-seriousness faltered and collapsed completely.

"Alright sleepyhead, up and at'em, we've gotta find our hotel!"

* * *

Bright red in the corner.

 _Morsel?_

Flies buzzing, too close. Too close.

Swat at them, still here.

 _Morsel?_

Oops. Stay quiet. Don't swat. Flies are friends.

 _Morsel?_

Closer to the grate. Yes. Yes. The flies lure. Curious.

 _Morsel?_

Peeking. No further questions, your honour. Succulent.

 _Morsel?_

Grinding sound hurts my ears. Grate is gone. Hand poking around.

 _Morsel._

Hand withdrawn. Phone call. Wait, wait. Wait. Hang up.

Sneaking, crawling, quiet as a mouse, the last thing we need is a rodent problem in the house.

 _Morsel._

Sitting, thinking, facing the other way, looks like a tasty snack today.

* * *

Chloe watched Max's hand raise and mechanically brush that same tuft of hair behind her ear, where it stayed for a few seconds before falling back into place. She didn't brush it back again.

Her eyes remained firm and calm, examining the room with a professional's gaze. Only her tightly pursed lips gave any indication of the gruesome scene she was crouching in front of.

"Time the body was found?" Max's voice continued interrogating the Junior Detective on the scene with them.

"About four hours ago, Miss." Max looked sharply up at him.

"That's Agent Caulfield, if you don't mind Detective Pitts." He held her gaze for a moment before backing down.

"Whatever you say, _Agent Caulfield."_

Chloe frowned at his tone and shouldered past him to where Max was examining the body. She saw Max glance at her from the corner of her eyes. The brunette agent started in a clinical tone.

"Body's been eviscerated, same M.O as your other cases. Ribs pulled open, almost like a bear trap, partial or total consumption of most internal organs, save for the heart."

Chloe nodded. "Anything interesting about the entry on this one?"

Max's tone turned exasperated as she stood and walked to the door. "Yes, in that there doesn't appear to have been one."

She lead Chloe outside and continued. "We dusted the door for prints, the last person to use the doorknob on both sides was the owner. Plus, look at this." She handed Chloe an evidence bag with an unlocked smartphone in it. "Watch."

The short agent walked around the side of the house and out of Chloe's sight. Chloe jumped a bit as the phone in the evidence bag buzzed. _Should've expected that I guess._ It opened automatically to what looked like a surveillance app. _Not common civilian tech._ Through a black and white, slightly static filled display, she saw Max waving at her. The camera was at approximately eye level, which meant Max was looking up at it slightly. _Not a usual place to put cameras, these aren't place to deter burglars, but as an early alert or warning system._ Max walked out of the frame, and reappeared as the camera view changed to one at the front of the house. She left once more, showed up on the camera at the other side of the house, and finally re-entered the backyard, tripping the camera positioned to watch the back door.

Chloe spoke as Max walked back towards her. "Wireless motion activated surveillance, not a type typically available for civvies either, usually used by Private Security Companies. If I had to guess, they're camouflaged too, not meant to be used as a deterrent."

"That's right, you know your tech." Max gave her a tight smile and gently tucked that same hair behind her ear again before continuing.

"And it ties into who our victim was. Ethan Suthland, Bouncer turned Process Server turned Private Security Contractor."

Chloe's eyebrows shot up. "Someone who'd have lots of enemies then."

Max nodded excitedly and made her way back inside to the living room of the modest house. "Exactly, I'm gonna do some research once we get back. See if anyone would have any reason to get even."

"He was a process server Max, there's probably hundreds of ex-cons who'd be pissed at him." Chloe flopped down unceremoniously onto a deprecated sofa and grunted as she landed. "Oufh." She rocked forward a bit and rubbed her tailbone. "Not much cushioning on this one."

Max raised an eyebrow disapprovingly, but a muffled, high pitched giggle gave away her amusement. Chloe glared back at her in mock-anger.

"Hey! Y'know I've been doing cool and important detective work too!"

"Oh? Any useful witnesses?"

"Well… just one, most of them are Bigfoot Hunter types looking for their moment in the sun, but I've got an old lady who claims to have seen the assailant break in."

"Why didn't she call the police? And why isn't the assailant on any of these cameras?"

Chloe smirked. "I told her I'd be back with my partner to conduct the interview, she offered to make us some supper."

"I don't really know if that's allowed Chloe." Max said sternly. Chloe gazed back at her. A rumbling groan came from Max's stomach, and she winced as Chloe tried to hold back her laughter.

"But that said, as long as you didn't coerce her I guess we can have some, just this once." Chloe finally lost control and rolled back and forth on the couch laughing. Max's professional demeanor finally broke and fell into a fit of giggling.

"Come on, let's go you jerk." She walked over and helped Chloe get up _._ Talking jovially and looking forward to some food, the two of them made their way out of the crime scene.

Behind them, Detective Mason Pitts stood in the doorway. He looked at the body behind him, then back to the agent's retreating forms, he took off his cap, exhaled, and shook his head. "Fucking Feds."

* * *

The thick, enticing scent of crab gumbo wafted into the street. Max clutched her stomach. "Holy shit I'm so hungry." Chloe chuckled and lead her up to the door.

Chloe rapped on the door, a voice shouted from inside "Come in!"

The inside of the house smelled strong with the various herbs and spices used in creole cooking. The front parlor was richly furnished, a large wooden dining table adorned with a burgundy tablecloth sat with three set places.

A matronly face poked out from the open door to what appeared to be the kitchen. In a thick Creole accent she said, "The gumbo will be ready in a minute dears!"

"Thank you!" Chloe responded, before choosing one of the set places and sitting herself down.

Max looked at her. "You really have no problem just making yourself at home anywhere, do you?"

"I try not to. Did a lot of moving around as a kid, after a while getting attached to things comes easily, and uh. Goes easily." _If only you knew, Max._

Their host suddenly made her appearance from the kitchen carrying a large pot of still steaming gumbo. "Welcome both of you! I hope the ride here was okay?"

"It wasn't too bad, thanks Annette." Chloe replied easily.

"It's polite to let others introduce themselves, you know." She smiled and turned her attention to Max. "I'm Annette, and you are?"

"Ah, I'm Agent Max Caulfield, and thank you- uh, thanks for dinner Ma'am." Max smiled and held out her hand, which the older woman gripped with both of her own.

"No trouble at all Miss Caulfield! And aren't you a pretty young thing!" She peered at Chloe. "And you are very lucky Miss Price."

Chloe's eyes widened and she started sputtering, Max tried to string words together. "Oh we aren't- y'know we- I mean… meant we aren't an- an item."

Annette, seemingly unbothered by their apparent panic simply laughed. "Right, right, well the gumbo is here! Dig in! We can talk after."

Happy to set that particular conversation aside, and not really sure how she felt about Max's immediate panic about the idea, Chloe nodded gratefully and dug in.

An hour of feasting and light dinner talk later, Chloe and Max sat on a sofa in Annette's sunroom, stomachs content and full.

Chloe broke the easy silence. "So Annette, I'm afraid it's about time for us to get down to business."

The Creole woman nodded and leaned back. "Poor Mr. Suthland. Dreadful thing, just dreadful. No one deserves to go like that, not even him."

"Not even him?" Max raised an eyebrow. "Are you referring to his past work as a Process Server?"

The woman nodded. "Yes, he was not well liked around here. Not one bit. But it wasn't his reputation that killed him, no, I saw what snuck into his house."

Chloe looked at Max, then back at Annette. "What snuck in? Not who?"

Annette's eyes were crinkled with thought as they gazed into the middle distance. "No, not who. Not anymore." Thought, and maybe a little grief?

"I am widowed for eighteen years now. It was eighteen years ago that my husband was sent to jail on false charges. It was eighteen years ago he was savagely beaten in the showers only days after incarceration. It was eighteen years ago he bled to death in those showers while new evidence proving his innocence was brought to light." She focused her gaze into Max's eyes. "It was eighteen years ago that Mr. Suthland knocked on our door and forcibly took my husband to county jail to await court.. He would not believe us when we said more evidence would come. He did not listen. He did not give us the time we needed to save my husband's life."

She sighed suddenly, drained. "What are you saying, Mrs. DeCuir?" Chloe asked, eyes narrow, hand imperceptibly shifting closer to the holster at her waist.

Annette caught her gaze. "I am saying my husband is back, but not the same. He has been back many times, but this time is different. After Mr. Suthland he will not stop. Something is wrong with him."

Chloe and Max were silent for a moment, then Max stood, face empty of any gaiety that had previously lasted through dinner.

"Mrs. DeCuir, thank you for the dinner, but I am afraid I am going to have you put under house arrest until we understand what is happening better. I'll leave you my number, please let us know if you have anything else to add." Annette simply nodded sadly as Max left to phone it in. Chloe stood as her partner left, then made her way to Annette's side.

"Annette, what's wrong with your husband?"

She looked at the blue haired agent, eyes narrow. "You will call me crazy."

Chloe kept her gaze. "I won't, you have my word on that." Annette studied her face.

"You have lost someone too." She nodded. "Very well. He is possessed by a beast that hungers. His own thirst for vengeance has been stronger than the hunger, but no longer. Mr. Suthland was the last of them. He hunts only innocents now."

Chloe held her gaze. "I will find him."

Annette nodded. "Please do. And please stop him."

* * *

They had the elevator to themselves. The faint smell of crab gumbo stuck to their clothing. A sharp electronic ding signaled their floor, and they made their way to their room, each running through all that they'd learned as Chloe unlocked the door.

Max strode in and opened up her bag, then turned around and faced Chloe. "Okay, so. She definitely did it, right?"

Chloe regarded her and plopped down into one of the room's chairs. "I wouldn't be so sure."

"Oh?"

Chloe sighed. _Here goes._ "I think she was telling the truth, or the truth as far as she understands it."

Max stared at here. _So far so alright, she's not laughing._ "Look, there's been a plethora of examples of supernatural revenge killings, from the archaeologists that disturbed King Tut's tomb to Mobsters haunted by the ghosts of their victims that drove them to suicide. I can't see how else to solve our locked room mystery here."

Max sighed. "Come on Chloe, almost all of those have been proven to be the delusions of paranoiacs or mentally ill people, and those that haven't are at best wild exaggerations and at worst, lies that have only grown over time."

"Maybe so, but I dare you to find a reasonable suspect that would _still_ be committing revenge killings year after year like this."

"What about her? Annette? Like I said, it's gotta be right?"

Chloe squinted at the shorter agent. "Really? You think a sixty something year old woman could do what you saw earlier today? Do you realise how stupid that is?"

Max glared at the other agent, her gaze turning steely. _Oh shit. Too far?_

Max took another moment before responding, almost bitter sounding. "A bit rich for _you_ to call _my_ theory stupid, isn't it?"

Chloe's eyes widened, and just as quickly narrowed her eyebrows creasing. _Oh fuck you._ She knew she should probably apologize, she'd asked Max to take her seriously after all, she should at least return the favour. _But on the other hand, fuck off._

She pulled out her laptop and spun around to face the desk behind her. Distantly she heard the door slamming as she put her earbuds in and turned her music up. _I've gotta play some games and cool off._

* * *

 _Morsel?_

Something else. There was a reason I was hunting. A Prey. _Prey?_

 _Prey?_

 _No_. A reason for revenge. _No._ Vengeance. _No_. A bloody shower. _No_.

 _Prey?_

A force. _A pact_. A whispered offer from the drain. The drain the blood flowed towards. Flowed as if magnetically attracted.

 _Prey?_

It's faint, faint. _Faint_. Vengeance for what? For the shower? For _Hunger._ No. _Hunger._ No.

 _Prey?_

 _Search for_ vengeance _hunger. See red_ Judge _in the bed._ Prosecutor _makes a tasty meal._

 _Prey._

 _Stomach rumbling finally_ Assailants _been freed. Teeth are sharp it_ Process Server _is time to feed._

 _Prey!_

 _Food walking talking in the night. It's time to hunt and stay out of the light._ Annette.

 _PREY!_

* * *

A few rounds of virtually blowing shit up later, Chloe forced herself to unfocus on the screen. She jumped as a violent buzz erupted from her nightstand. _10:20 PM, who'd be calling this late?_ She picked up the phone. _Shit, Max._

She sighed and answered. "Hey, look I'm sorry ab-"

"Chloe!? Where have you been?" Max's panicked sounding voice cut her off. "I've been trying to get in touch for half an hour! Get to the station, _now._ "

"Right, sorry, on my way." She responded seriously. Something had clearly happened that was worth forgetting about their argument. _Fucking ADHD_ , _I've gotta be more careful about keeping my phone next to me._

She threw on her jacket and jogged down to the motel parking lot. _That was a slip-up. I've gotta be available for my partner to communicate with me at all times,_ _especially when we're the only agents on an assignment like this_ _._ She sighed as she slammed the door of their rental. _And I've gotta be more careful not to antagonize them._ Her seat rumbled beneath her as the satisfying growl of the rental car's engine signaled it coming life. _It's the same story as every other time. Hell, even Rachel started this way. Rach… But it was so easy to get over it with her._ She shook the thought from her head. There would be time to think about Rachel later, Max needed her now. She put the rental car in gear and gunned it.

 _It's been a while since I've been out in the field_ . Chloe mused as she drove the narrow streets through to the station. Most of her recent work had been examinations of cold cases from the basement of the Hoover Building. What Annette had said played again in her mind. " _He is possessed by a beast that hungers_." Possession wasn't a hugely uncommon excuse for murder. But the consistency and, strangely, restraint shown by the singular murder a year, always around the same date, just didn't add up to a human assailant.

Let alone the state of the bodies and the weird skin-ish stuff they'd found. Despite the humid air, she shivered as she drove alongside the swamp that bordered this side of the city. _We sleep all calmly and relaxed in our beds, but practically right next to us is this huge swamp. Do we even know everything that's in there? Can we?_ She forced a chuckle and split the quiet as she turned the radio up. _Silence always gets to me, I wish Max were here._

Thankfully, the police station was further into the city. Chloe got out of her car and made her way through the brightly lit parking lot, hesitating only briefly in nervousness as she got to the door. _Deal with your mistakes Chlo, and apologize._ She steeled herself and entered the building. The receptionist squinted up at her as she approached.

"Public services are closed for the evening Miss."

Chloe raised an eyebrow. "That's fine, I'm Agent Price with the FBI, I'm looking for my partner, Agent Caulfield?"

The receptionist leaned back in her chair and looked Chloe up and down. "Right." Her eyes settled on Chloe's sea-blue hair, before winding down her tattoo. "Can I see your ID?"

Chloe had gotten this before, it still made her grit her teeth a bit every time, but it just meant she always took extra care to pack her wallet. She reached into her back pocket. _Shit._ She patted herself down, her pockets were empty save for her phone and some gum. _Shit._ "Look, I forgot it at our motel room, I was in a rush, my partner called in a panic, can you just let me back? Or send her up to verify?"

The receptionist frowned and pushed her horned rim glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Listen dear, I don't know what you intend the outcome of this prank to be, or how you that nice lady's name, but I think she has better things to do than be-"

Chloe slammed her fist on the reception desk, the sound echoed through the otherwise quiet room. "This. Is not. A prank." She glared daggers into the now clearly frightened receptionist. _No Chloe, stay calm. Don't be unprofessional. You've been down this road._ She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, then stood back from the desk and straightened her spine. She opened her eyes. "Uh, sorry about that. It's just frustrating to-"

The doors to the rest of the police station were suddenly pushed open, "Chloe!" Max's voice rang out. _Oh thank God._ Chloe gave a small, awkward wave to the receptionist and turned to meet Max. _Right, apologize._ "Hey! Sorry about the whole-"

Max interrupted her, "It's okay, we'll talk about it later, you're gonna want to see this."

Chloe gritted her teeth. _Jesus H. Christ let me apologize!_ But she turned to follow Max. _Heh, she almost looks excited._ She unconsciously loosened her jaw, and the tension drained from her body as Max took her hand and pulled her along. _She really just does this, huh?_

A few moments later they rounded the corner into an autopsy room, and the sight of what was inside made Chloe immediately recoil and draw her hand back to herself. "Jesus fucking Christ, what the shit!?"

Max stopped and turned around sheepishly. "Uh, sorry Chloe, probably should've warned you." She walked up to a laptop that looked to have Skype open. "You still there Mikey?"

A familiar voice responded, "Ya, hey Max, your partner here?"

Max turned to look at Chloe. "Chloe, this is-"

"Mikey North!?" Chloe said, her eyebrows raised.

"Holy shit, Chloe _Price?_ " Mikey said with a laugh. The camera refocused as he entered the frame, revealing a young looking, bespectacled black man in a labcoat.

Chloe laughed as she took him in. "You're looking scrawny as ever, chicken-legs."

"Oh up yours, Chloe." He laughed with an easy familiarity.

Max looked between the screen and Chloe. "I take it you two already know each other?" She asked, one corner of her mouth lifted in a wry smile.

Chloe met Max's smile with her own. "Oh yeah, we go way back, grew up together and went into similar fields."

Max nodded. "Sweet, that makes this easier, Mikey is our assigned liaison with the analytics department, we'll be in touch with him whenever we send samples back to Hoover."

"Ouh, so the new partner comes with a liaison, they never gave me one of those while I was on my own." Chloe teased. Max's smile stayed fixed in place, but she didn't laugh. _Ah, not quite back into joking territory yet, boundary noted._ "Anyway uh, what was it you wanted me to see."

Max gestured to the mangled mass of limbs and blood in front of her. "Well you've already seen the main attraction." Chloe nodded and pursed her lips as Max continued. "New victim from earlier tonight. Obviously the victim looks, uh, slightly different than the others, but I don't think anything could have done this outside of our mystery killer."

Chloe nodded and hesitantly stepped a little closer. "I see." Mangled really was the best way to describe it. She shuddered. She could make out various individual shapes that used to be limbs, but on the whole it was otherwise unrecognizable as human.

"We've concluded that there's not really much else to learn from this, uh, corpse in it's current state." Max continued. "However, Mikey finished analyzing the sample tissue we found not too long ago."

Chloe shifted her attention to the laptop and Mikey continued. "That's right, essentially in shape, appearance, and strength, this is a crocodile scale. Well, it's more accurately known as a scute." Chloe frowned and began to try to speak before Mikey cut her off, "However! What's weird is what it's made of, as you probably noticed, despite all that it's clearly, visibly not crocodile skin. That's because it's _basically_ human calluses."

Chloe's brow furrowed. "Hm, gross."

Mikey nodded, "You're telling me."

"You said it's as strong as crocodile, uh, scutes?" Max prompted.

"Yes! It's the strangest thing, human calluses essentially can't grow this thick, let alone, y'know, in the freaking exact shape of crocodile scutes, and yet, this sample is here." Mikey shrugged as he turned back to look at it. "I honestly have no idea how this exists, unless it's some messed up form of body art or something."

"Thanks Mikey, let us know if you find anything else out." Max said, walking over to close the laptop.

Mikey nodded and sat back down at his computer desk. "Sure thing Max. And hey Chloe! Next time you're back in D.C hit me up for drink! It's been forever!"

Chloe laughed. "Sure thing Mikey, I'll let you know. But now we've got, er, a thing of some… kind to catch. Later!"

He quirked an eyebrow. "Uh, sure, seeya."

The room was brought to silence punctuated by the staccato click of the laptop being closed. Max busied herself with packing up what equipment she had brought while Chloe awkwardly tried pumping herself up by the door. _Come on, bite the bullet. Don't let this be like the other times, she's the best possible partner they've sent._ She saw Max straighten out of the corner of her eye, and stand still. A familiar feeling of dread settled itself in the pit of Chloe's stomach as her thoughts turned in over themselves, growing darker and more entrenched. _She's gonna request a transfer as soon as we get back. I'm so stupid, I couldn't have just kept my cool, Madsen's going to be pissed, he can't protect me anymore, he said so himself if I keep going the way I am he'll have to shut dow-_

"I'm sorry Chloe." Chloe blinked a few times and looked up to see Max was facing her now, eyes slightly downcast. "Uh, sorry for what I… yknow, said in the hotel room."

Chloe's eyes widened as she realised what was happening, and she quickly closed the distance to Max and put her hands on the shorter Agent's shoulders. "No no no, Max, I'm sorry, I instigated it, it was super unprofessional of me."

Max shook her head. "Maybe, but I'm the one who kinda… insulted your whole deal, y'know? I don't know about your idea about what happened, but you were right that it couldn't have been that old lady..." Max sighed and gently removed Chloe's hands. "Maybe I'm just frustrated cause I can't figure this thing out."

Chloe lightly punched her on the shoulder. "Hey, I feel you. If we're gonna be doing cases together, then our partnership is a work in progress, you catch my drift? We're as much investigating how we work together as what might have happened."

Max nodded and gave Chloe a small smile. "I guess you're right." Chloe smiled back and stepped away.

Looking at the malformed corpse one final time and turning back to Max, Chloe said, "And for the record, I _am_ sorry. I did instigate it, I know I can be confrontational sometimes, it's something I'm working on… I'll try to be clear headed about it if you ever tell me I'm being over the top."

Max nodded and Chloe nodded back. Making casual small talk they gathered up their supplies and made back for their hotel.

* * *

 _Early morning sunrise, no opportunities tonight_

 _hunger_

 _Have to feed, have to feed, need food in my sight._

 _hunger._

 _Aged meat, brittle bones, early morning stroll._

 _Hunger._

 _Blood splashing, screams from around, my teeth take their toll._

 _HUNGER._

* * *

 _BANG BANG BANG_

Chloe jumped up as a frantic banging on her hotel room door tore her from her sleep.  
The panicked voice of Detective Pitts shouted from outside. "Agent Caulfield! Agent Price! Wake up!" Max had already rolled out of her single bed and Chloe grabbed her service pistol from her nightstand as she jumped up out of hers.

Max opened the door, "What is it Detective?"

He breathed heavily, out of breath. "There's been another attack just down the road from here just a few minutes ago, we've locked down the scene but we don't have enough manpower to send people after the assailant unless you come."

Chloe nodded. "Right, which way out of the hotel?"

"Left, you can see the scene from the entrance." He replied.

 _How convenient._ "Gotcha, where did the assailant head?" She asked.

The Detective sighed. "Into the swamp, Agent Price." Chloe's brow set into a determined line.

"Got it, we're gonna get dressed quickly and then we'll be right out." They closed the door as the Detective nodded and started running back to the scene.

* * *

A few minutes later they had arrived at the grisly scene. Detective Pitts was talking to a crowd as two beat cops, who'd presumably found the body were finishing putting up caution tape.

Chloe saw Max's eyes widen as she saw the elderly man on the ground, lying next to a knife one of the strange scutes from before, and a pool of blood darker than his own. The shorter Agent broke into a sprint. "This man is still alive Detective!" She shouted.

Detective Pitts looked back at her and waved off the crowd as he ran to his patrol car for a medical kit. Chloe jogged up alongside Max, who'd begun putting pressure on the old man's wounds. Max looked up at her with a worried expression.

"Chloe, if this man is going to survive I absolutely _have_ to stay here with him until the ambulance arrives."

Chloe started to reply but was interrupted. A raw, bestial, yet somehow human sounding scream tore it's way out from the swamp. Max and Chloe stared at the swamp, and the trail of blood leading into it from a moment before meeting gazes. Chloe already knew what she had to do. _Sorry Max._

Max seemed to sense it too, but Chloe was already bounding off into the swamp as she shouted "Chloe, wait!" The other Agent had already disappeared into the foliage. "Chloe! Shit!"

* * *

Chloe sprinted through the swamp as fast as she could, her feet sinking several inches into the ground with each step. Her legs burned and sweat quickly drenched her body as the humid air tried to sap the energy out of her. She managed to fumble her service pistol out of it's holster, and moved forward slowly as the trail of blood became thicker.

The blood pools that made up the trail were bigger from this point. _It began moving more slowly here, thinking it was out of danger._ She crouched, holding her pistol in front of her as she desperately scanned the dense foliage for any large movement. _Don't get jumpy, you know you're looking for something humanoid, don't freak at the small stuff_. She snapped her pistol towards a small bird taking off from a shorter tree, then chastised herself and took a deep breath before moving forward.

The trail of blood suddenly ended, she surveyed the area around her for any clues as to where it'd gone. On the left, the foliage cleared slightly into what seemed to be a pond of brackish water. On the right, a cliff face that had a cave opening. _I'd be going to a cave if I wanted to be safe._ Chloe began to step in that direction but stopped. _Wait. I'm missing something…_ She went over the past few days in her mind, reviewing the evidence of the case. _A locked room. Torn bodies. A convict beaten to death. Strange calluses. Wait, the scutes…_ _like a crocodile!_ She abruptly turned and made her way towards the water.

She approached slowly, surveying the edges of the pool of water. On the far bank, six crocodiles sat basking in the sun from the break in the foliage. She scanned some more. _There!_ It looked like a naked man, but his silhouette was strange. His skin looked bumpy, ridged even. _The scutes…_ This had to be Annette's husband.

Chloe moved around him in a semicircle, trying to get behind him. _Thank God for these damned noisy insects._ She thought, as she narrowly avoided stepping hard into a puddle of water. She now stood behind the man… thing, by about five or six meters. She slowly cocked her gun.

 _Click._

It's head shot up, darting back and forth. _Cover's blown._ She thought, before shouting, "FBI! Stay where you are and put your hands up!" It turned towards her. Chloe wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but a plainly human face wasn't it. The only thing that set his face apart was the eyes, they looked as a crocodiles, vertically slitted, and permanently glowering due to the ridges that had grown around them. Her snarled at her and began crawling with inhuman speed over the vegetation.

Chloe exhaled and centered her aim.

 _BANG._

One sharp report of her gun. It kicked back in her hand.

 _BANG._

A second.

 _BANG._

The creature screamed again, suddenly reversing and crawling back towards the water.

Chloe followed, gun still held at the last place she spotted him, wary that it was a trap. Her guard slightly lowered as she saw a spreading cloud of dark red blood moving it's way towards the far bank, she began to scan for the quickest way to get there and cut the creature off, before some movement at it's intended destination caught her eye.

The six crocodiles had all lifted their heads, and were watching intently as the cloud of dark red blood moved towards them. "Oh shit." Chloe said to herself, pretty sure about what was about to unfold.

The crocodiles all suddenly glided into the water, each barely making a ripple as they descended into the murky pool. Perhaps sensing their arrival, Chloe's quarry lifted itself to look out of the water towards them.

What followed was a gory mess, Chloe watched in vain for a few moments to see if there was any chance of her adversary getting away, but it didn't seem like it. These crocodiles were more vicious than Chloe had been lead to believe, they _really_ seemed to have it out for this guy. She had turned away when she heard a shout from within the foliage. "Chloe! Chloe?" Max's voice. In spite of the grisly scene behind her, Chloe smiled.

"Over here!" With the help of some verbal guidance Max and Detective Pitts managed to get to Chloe's location.

"Chloe you had me super worried!" Max said, looking very upset.

Chloe had the grace to look chagrined. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't want the trail to go cold."

"So did you catch the perp?" The Detective asked.

Chloe jerked her thumb up at the still thrashing mass of crocodile and flesh behind her. "Laws of nature got to him before I could."

Detective Pitt's eyes widened. "Holy shit."

Chloe nodded and began to walk off. "Yeah, I think that'll take care of your evisceration problem. Coming Max?"

Max looked between the gory scene and Chloe, shrugged to Detective Pitts, and followed.

Detective Mason Pitts looked at the now calmer alligators in their tract of bloody water, their prime suspect likely beginning to be digested in their bellies. He sighed, and lit up a cigarette.

"Fucking Feds."

* * *

Max closed her eyes as Chloe interrupted her. _Again_.

"Hey make sure you leave in the part where I heroically jumped into the swamp in pursuit of the attacker." She was clearly having Max on a bit, but two could play at that game.

She spun her chair around and responded, smirking. "You mean when you jumped into a dense area of foliage with _no_ backup, with a killer who had grown up around the region, and no easy way of getting in contact? Endangering both yourself and anyone who might go in after you?"

"Hey! It turned out alright! I ended up being in no danger at all!" The blue haired Agent protested.

Max looked at her incredulously. "Right, which is why you discharged your service pistol three times? Just cause the perp got turned into an alligator snack doesn't mean you didn't endanger the whole operation."

Chloe raised her eyebrows, "Well he's not the only one looking like a snack now, _Maxine._ "

Max glared at her and spun her chair around, definitely only to get back to work and not at all to hide the blush that found it's way onto her cheeks.

"Just Max, never Maxine." She said. Chloe laughed and turned back to her files.

"Now let's see, where to next..." Chloe busied herself with looking through for cases that interested her.

Max snuck a glance at the other Agent. Blue hair, a suit jacket big enough that it fits but _just_ tight enough that it frames her arms and shows her musculature. The hint of a tattoo poking out from under one sleeve. An expression of concentration as she deftly flicks through the files.

 _I suppose I can stick this assignment out for a while longer,_ Max decided.


	3. Episode Two - Strange Days

Chloe grimaced and huddled herself under her leather jacket as a shuddering wind blew through the abandoned Washington D.C suburbs. She again cast her gaze around the small playground nestled between neighborhoods that the note had told her to meet at. _  
Damnit. Probably just another prank by those assholes across the hall._ She sighed. It wouldn't have been the first time, the pranks taking advantage of her belief that there was more to the world than met the eye had started just a couple of months after Rachel had disappeared. This would certainly take the cake for most elaborate though.

She shrugged and brought her cigarette back up to her mouth. _If nothing else, it's fresh air I suppose._ She leaned back and took a long drag.

"That'll kill you, you know." Chloe gasped in surprise and immediately started coughing on the smoke still in her lungs. Tears streaming down her face as throaty coughs wracked her body, she looked around for the source of the voice.

An adult woman in a long black trenchcoat stood behind her. An expression of slightly confused worry starting to sneak it's way past her clearly practiced poker face.

"You alright there?" Her voice was no-nonsense, but had a wry sarcasm to it that was impossible to suppress. Chloe nodded in response and just held up a finger as she finished coughing the acrid smoke out of her system.

One last cough and a clear of her throat, and Chloe stood back up to her full height.

"Sorry abou-" Her cheeks reddened as she dissolved into another short coughing fit. _So much for a badass exchange of information with a mysterious informant, Jesus Chlo._

The other woman seemed to stifle a laugh in her throat. "I didn't mean to scare you, seriously. Uh, my bad, I suppose."

Chloe straightened up again, speaking more carefully this time to test out her throat. "No, you're right, I should probably have kicked the habit a few years ago." Chloe took a more clear look at the other woman now, as clear as she could in the dim moonlight illuminating the park. Only a couple years older than her, she had a worldliness and self-assured air that was in itself a kind of rarity. Contrasting with the very mature nature of her trench coat, she also wore a loose grey beanie, from which straight brunette hair came down to just above her shoulders.

The mysterious woman nodded. "Right, well, unfortunately I'm not here for pleasantries." Chloe cut her off.

"Of course not, and how the Hell did you get that note _into_ my apartment? That's pretty fucking creepy."

"We have _ways_ Ms. Price, to get into anywhere." She said, fiddling with the simple homemade jiggle keys in her trenchcoat pocket. "More importantly, _they_ have ways of getting in places. And getting people out of them."

Chloe narrowed her eyes and leaned back against the jungle gym behind her. " _They_?"

The other woman nodded. "The ones who took Rachel, of course." Chloe's eyes widened. Her hand reached to her side and brushed back her leather jacket, flaunting the weapon at her hip.

"Tell me what you know, _now_."

The trench-coated woman's expression darkened, and she raised her hands in front of her. "Not much Ms. Price, not yet. But I'm working my way through them, earning their trust, if you'll allow me?" She trailed off as she tentatively moved her hand towards her pocket. Chloe stared for a second, then nodded. The other woman reached into her pocket and pulled out a USB stick.

"This has what leads I have so far, it's not much, but if you cross-reference with your S-Files, I suspect you'll start to find a pattern." She held out the USB stick. Chloe hesitated a moment, then let go of her gun and reached out to grab it, but the other woman held onto it. Chloe looked up, confused. The other woman was staring at the USB stick with a strange expression.

"Hold on, I think this is the wrong USB stick." Again, Chloe gazed at her.

"What, getting cold feet?"

"No, no. I marked the USB stick I was gonna give to you with blue tape, this one has orange."

"Right. So you're just carrying around two identical USB sticks, and only one of them has secret leaks on it."

The other woman was glaring at Chloe now.  
"Seriously, this one just has movies on it, I have to return it to Mi-, uh, my friend."

Chloe quirked an eyebrow. "Movies? Right. Well, we'll just see about that." With a sharp tug Chloe tore the USB from the mysterious woman's grip.

"No wait!" Cried the other woman, but Chloe was already purposefully striding off.

The trench-coated woman fumbled in her pocket for a moment before procuring the other USB stick in her pocket, this one had blue tape wrapped around it, and a little end sticking off with a big "C" written on it in sharpie. She rubbed her forehead in consternation.

"Shit." She said under her breath, "What am I gonna tell Mikey?"

* * *

Chloe rubbed her forehead with the palm of her hand and leaned back in her computer chair. She let the shift in balance cause the wheeling chair to spin her around to face the rest of her hastily cleaned bedroom. She could hear Max in the bathroom, humming as she finished applying a light layer of make up. Max walked back into the room and let out a small chuckle at Chloe's expression, earning a glower from the other woman.  
"Still no luck on the _secret files_ , Chloe?" _Haw-haw, I'm rubbing off on her, she's gotten better at teasing._  
"Not yet, _Literal FBI Agent Max Caulfield_ , it just seems so... _weird_ that a shady lady in a trenchcoat would keep a fucking USB stick full of pirated Sci-Fi movies on her when she goes off to have a secret rendezvous!"  
Max laughed and shrugged, "Hey, she's a person too."  
With a roll of her eyes Chloe spun her chair back around, "I guess." She said.  
A soft, rosey scent suddenly filled her nostrils as Max leaned over the side of her chair. "Maybe it's like, the content of the movies, and not anything hidden in their metadata or anything?" Chloe blinked a couple times as she tried to stop her brain from short-circuiting due to the _extremely nice scent and oh God she's right there_ _keep it cool Chloe_.  
"I-I guess." She said with an uncharacteristic stutter. "But I guess tonight I don't really have time to analyse the wikipedia plot descriptions of every damn movie on the stick."  
Max laughed lightly and stood up from the chair, letting Chloe sigh silently in relief, and a little bit of regret. "No, I guess not, _you're_ the one that talked me into this, so you better not let me show up alone."  
"I guess so," Chloe laughed. "Come on, let's ride, Mikey's gonna start blowing up my phone if we're too late." She reached around her computer tower and grabbed the USB stick from it, pausing for a moment to look again at the letter M written in sharpie on the tape. _I'll figure out your mysteries yet, little bastard.  
_ Stuffing it in her back pocket, she grabbed her leather jacket off her bed and stepped into her combat boots. Max was already at the door, and Chloe reached around her to open it.  
"After you, _madamoiselle_ ," She said, with a debatably accurate French accent. At least it earned a giggle from Max, in spite of herself.  
"Why thank you, Agent Price."

* * *

"Come _on_ Steph, it's an old friend and one of my work colleagues, but they're chill! If you wanna just stay in your room they won't hold it against you y'know." Mikey stood over one of the couches in their living room, looking with an amused expression at the form of his roommate lying totally flat, facedown in the couch cushions. She lifted herself up by the elbows and readjusted her loose, grey beanie before propping her head up on her hands.  
"They'd think I was weird! I mean, it's on me for forgetting you told me you'd be having friends over, but like, man, we gotta work out some kinda system that interfaces your long term planning with my piss poor memory."

Mikey laughed at that, they'd been rooming together for a couple years now. Originally they were just friends-of-friends style acquaintances, but they'd both gotten government jobs in D.C at the same time, and their mutual friends had insisted they at least give living together in slightly nicer digs a shot before going back to one or two room apartments. Luckily for the both of them, they had ended up getting along famously, apart from just having very compatible personalities, they also shared a plethora of nerdy interests.

"I'll give it some thought, that said, I don't think you're gonna be scoring any points in the 'not weird' zone with _that_ ridiculous thing." He indicated her hand-me-down black trenchcoat, now tossed haphazardly on the floor of their entry hallway.

"Hey!" Steph protested, rolling onto her feet and into a 'mission impossible' style low crouch, "I look like a badass Government agent, come on!" Mike rolled his eyes and shook his head.  
"and _I'm_ the one who actually works for the FBI, now put that thing in the closet before my _very normal_ FBI friends get here, okay?"  
Steph flashed him a grin, "Already spent too long in the closet myself Mikey, but for you? Just this once." She got up and trotted over to the entryway, apparently having decided she had gotten the better of that exchange. Mikey laughed again and made his way back to the kitchen.  
"I'm gonna finish up dinner, you mind getting the door when they get here?"  
"Not at all, cause that's bound to be entirely not awkward and strange, nothing like your friend's roommate you've never met letting you in. God I went through enough of that in college."

* * *

The abrupt end of _Old Friend_ by _Mitski_ puncuated the companionable silence in Chloe's truck.  
Max saw the blue haired woman smile slightly in the strobing flash of the streetlights passing by.  
"That one always reminds me of growing up, especially after moving out." Max nodded, content to listen. "My mom actually ran a diner near my high school when I was still in it, and for a couple years afterwards. I moved out almost immediately when I finished high school. Dad wasn't around much and it left things kinda frosty with mom. I moved back for a while, though not with my 'rents, and friends from high school would always ask if I wanted to meet up at the Diner." Max saw her mouth tighten, not out of anger, but maybe regret? Sadness?  
"She didn't work there anymore, but I didn't want to either way. It just seemed like trying to force an old thing alive that already passed away peacefully."  
Max nodded again, "Fair enough." She said, not knowing what else to add.  
"Well hey, your turn now, pick something that's got less of a sob story for you than mine." Chloe joked, an easy, familiar smile returning to her lips. _She just entrusted me with that little piece of herself_. Max thought. _I need to find a way to be vulnerable like that to her..._ _maybe not right now though._  
"Wanna hear the song my-" She giggled, "My high school crush used to love? I like it on it's own merits now but back then, it was a, uh, it was something different." She giggled again, earning a chuckle from Chloe.  
"Sure thing champ, what was the crush's name?"  
Max scrolled down to select the song. "Oh, it was Ra-" She paused. What was she going to say? "Her name was... she... wha-"  
They were at a red light and Chloe was looking at her, open mouthed. Max noticed this, but was more caught up in trying to remember the girl's name. The light turned green, the truck didn't move.  
 _HOHNK  
_ A shrill honk from the car behind them took them both out of it, a moment later as they got back to cruising steadily Chloe spoke, incredulously.  
" _Her?"  
_ Max, who had started to drift back into the reverie of an unremembered name, suddenly blushed and squirmed and made herself as small as she could in her seat.  
"Oh! Uh. Ya, I-. Y'know, I'm a. The. I-. It's like if-. Well."  
Chloe began blubbering herself, sitting up much higher and overconfidently in her seat as she tried to make up for her own mental panic at making Max panic.  
"Nonono! Y'see, _I'm._ Like, y'know. We're both- We're. I'm. I. Uh." She could see Max kind of shriveling up in her passenger seat. _Ah shit._ She pulled the truck over and turned on her hazards, earning another angry honk. Chloe ignored it and turned seriously to Max. She tried to clear her head, and spoke.  
"Max. I'm lesbian."  
Max's posture relaxed slightly but remained on guard, mostly out of confusion. Her brow knitted. She mulled over the phrasing of the sentence that had just been said to her. It seemed like it was missing one word, maybe two, or too, specifically. She laughed internally. 'I'm a lesbian too.' would have made much more se- _Oh shit she's gay as well._

 _OhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShit,_ thought Chloe, nervously.

 _OhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShit,_ thought Max, excitedly.

Chloe's serious expression remained steadfast throughout Max's internal dialogue, which required a truly massive force of will. Max finally cracked a small smile.  
"Ya Chloe, I, as well, am lesbian." _Hrnn, not quite.  
_ Chloe finally let the tension out of her shoulders. And turned back to the wheel.  
"Well, talk about diversity quotas, huh?" She joked. Max laughed, the companionable feeling filling the air once again, perhaps even easier than before.  
Max flowed into another joke, "And both on the same team, assigned to the same 'spooky' desk, eh?" Chloe laughed back, and Max absentmindedly started the song queued up on her phone. They continue to cruise along as _No Below_ by _Speedy Oritz_ fills the truck, the forgotten name once again just that. Forgotten.

* * *

 _DoDaDaDadadaDING DoDaDaDadadaDING_

The off-key tones of the doorbell's very basic rendition of the opening bars of _Vivaldi's Spring_ rang through the apartment. Max and Chloe grinned and raised their eyebrows at each other as they heard a muffled woman's voice shout something about Mikey not having changed it yet. Bright light poured out onto the street as the door was flung open, blinding Max and Chloe momentarily.

* * *

 _Alright Steph don't fuck this up._ Steph tiptoed towards the door and flung it open, she took in the base details of the pair in front of her, _short brown hair nice coat shorter than me next to her taller than me leather jacket blue hair,_ and launched into her welcome.  
"Hello! Come on in, Mikey's just finishing supper he's right ba-" The rest of her sentence died, strangled in her throat as she mentally reviewed what she saw. _Leather jacket? Blue hair?_ She focused her eyes, adjusting to the slightly darker outdoors.  
"Right... right back... uhhh.." She jerked her thumb behind her as she stared, for the second time that evening, FBI Agent Chloe Price in the face.

* * *

Chloe blinked a couple of times as the slightly shorter woman at the door talked, her eyes adjusting to the brightness.  
"Right... right back... uhhh.."  
 _Hm. What a familiar voice._ Chloe's eyes widened as she saw the grey beanie, the same as had been on her 'informant' from earlier that night, now atop the head of this stuttering, panicked looking lady. _Or rather, still atop the head. Holy shit, did she hurt Mikey?  
_ Just as the thought crossed Chloe's mind, a pair of glasses with Mikey behind them popped out from the kitchen's entryway up ahead.  
"Well get out of their way Steph, come on!" He said mock-angrily, then made eye contact with the two agents, "And hey guys, out in a minute."  
"Hey Mikey!" Max chirped happily.  
"Ya, uh, hey." Chloe said as normally as she could.  
The other woman stepped back, not having said anything since she trailed off earlier. Max stuck her hand out and said "Hi there! I'm Max, I work with Mikey."  
Chloe almost laughed as Grey Beanie Lady only stared at the outstretched hand for a moment before coming to her senses.  
Pointedly avoiding eye contact with Chloe, she shook Max's hand and responded. "Good to meet ya, I'm Steph, I'm a..." Her eyes flitted to Chloe's face then back to Max's. "Staffer. With the DoD."  
They shook gently and Steph went to step back when Chloe stuck out her hand. "And I'm FBI Agent Chloe Price, assigned to the basement desk. Good to meet you, _Steph._ "  
Max shot Chloe a confused and slightly angry look, while Steph just laughed slightly nervously and took the offered hand.  
"Uh, yes good to _meet_ you too. Ha."

 _Gotta get away from them for a second to collect myself what the fuuuuck is going on holy shit._ Steph's thoughts ran away from her as the two agents awkwardly took off their boots in the entry hall. She thought back to earlier that evening and- _Coats! Right!  
_ "Here, let me take your coats, the closet's a little out of the way." She tried. Price grinned slyly at her for a moment. _Awh shit._  
"Sure, here, thanks Steph." The blue haired agent said, and handed over her leather jacket. "Why don't I take your coat Max? Probably good for one of us to know where the closet is too." _God damnit._  
"Sure Chlo!" The brunette agent chirped, obliviously. _Aaaaaaaaah. Ahhh. Agh.  
_ Steph regained her composure as best she could. "Sounds good! You can chill in the living room for a sec Max, it's just down the hall." She looked back at Price, who grinned back at her like a shark. "Just uh. This way, Chloe."

Chloe followed Steph down the side hall toward what looked like a bathroom, and the closet. As soon as she judged they were out of earshot, she leaned over.  
"So exactly what. The _fuck._ Are you doing here?" She asked as Steph opened the closet.  
The shorter woman turned to her. Looking extremely unamused.  
"I live here, Price." Chloe snatched a hangar from the closet and quickly put Max's parka around it before shoving it back in.  
"No shit! But wh- Jesus. Why? How? Why didn't you tell me? Why not just meet here? What's going on?" Chloe began to let loose a torrent of angry questions that Steph tried to answer just as angrily as the stream kept coming.  
"Why do I live here? Christ Price, why not? I didn't know you'd be coming! How the fuck would I know the Agents Mikey worked with were-"  
Steph suddenly stopped talking, straightened up and put on a big, very realistic and convincing smile. Chloe heard Mikey's voice behind her."You guys alright Steph?"  
Chloe straightened up too and tried to lean casually on the wall, failing miserably as she stumbled a bit into the open closet that was there, instead of the expected wall.  
Steph's pained smile stayed in place as Chloe tumbled out of her vision and back into it as the other woman caught herself. "Yep! We just got caught up talking, we're coming!"  
Mikey gave her a look. "Alright then." Steph quickly strode after him towards the dining room, not waiting for the still recovering Chloe.

"Boney Petite!" Exclaimed Mikey, as he came out of the kitchen holding a bowl of mashed potatoes in one arm, and a mixed vegetable plate in the other. "Lemme just grab the meat." He quickly went back into the kitchen followed by a chorus of enthusiastic "Thank you!"s from his guests.  
Pre-supper conversation had been largely small-talk between Max and Steph, they were getting along well, Chloe supposed. It seemed like Steph didn't really pose any threat tonight. _If at all_. The woman seemed, if not innocent, innocuous? It wasn't that she didn't come off as mildly threatening, but overall she just exuded an aura of relaxation and chillness. It was strange.  
The food was delicious, Chloe helped herself to a large portion of seasoned chicken, mashed potatoes, and carrots with ranch dip. Max spoke up as everyone dug into the meal. "I didn't know you were such a great cook Mikey!" He laughed.  
"Ya, unfortunately the kinda work I usually do for you guys doesn't exactly inspire a strong appetite." They all laughed a little at that before trying hard to keep their minds from what he referred to.

Chloe could feel Steph's eyes boring into her as she ate. She chanced a look over, and- _Yup. Uh. Hey there trenchcoat lady._ Steph narrowed her eyebrows as Chloe made eye contact and flicked her eyes to the side of the table, Chloe followed the indication. There, obscured from the other by a bowl, Steph held a USB stick with a piece of blue tape wrapped around it. Chloe leaned forward and went to grab it, but the other woman pulled back and nodded her head towards Chloe with a knowing look. _What? Oh, the other stick._  
Chloe reached into her pocket and pulled it out. She slowly moved it towards the hidden space behind the bowl, and as she did so, the "M" scrawled lazily on the tape crossed her eye. _Oh. No way._  
She gently let go of her USB stick, then quickly snatched the one with the blue tape, as Steph did the same.  
"Oh, Steph! Before I forget to ask again, can I grab that USB stick back off you?" Mikey's voice interrupted their silent staring contest.  
Steph jumped a little in surprise. "Um, yeah! Uh, here it is." She brought her hand holding the USB down to her pockets and pretended to fumble around for a second, before pulling it out. She held the orange-tape wrapped USB out to Mikey, and Max gave Chloe a sharp look. _Hehehe, you'll see Max._ Chloe only winked in response.  
Both she and Steph visibly relaxed in their chairs, and started to polish off what was left of their meals.

The rest of the night went by in a kind of blur, Steph and Mikey were good company, especially now that Chloe didn't feel totally threatened by the other woman. They had turned out to all share a great deal of interests, moreso than most work friends through any of their careers had. The night started with the kind of small talk reserved for barely-seen acquaintances, and by the end had (d)evolved into discussions about video games, movies, tabletop games, and the like.  
Despite herself, Chloe had a great time. It was easily the most social she had been in months, and being there with Max felt really, really good. They had their jokes and banter while on the clock, but off it it was easier to put aside even the jokingly adverserial nature of their partnership and just relax.  
And as for Steph, ironically out of the four of them, Chloe shared the most interests with her. They both had a thing for good sci-fi (they even had triumphantly nerdy gushing session about the original Blade Runner while the other two watched in amusement) and a penchant for video games. Though she was originally hesitant to reveal too much about herself to the other woman, the other woman's openess and seeing how relaxed Max was had eventually loosened Chloe's lips. By the end of the night Chloe and Steph had noted down each other's Discord usernames in their phones.

"Well Chlo, I think it's probably time we should head out." A gentle _soft_ hand on Chloe's shoulder and the _cute_ voice of a lightly inebriated Max shook Chloe from her catching up with Mikey. Steph had gone to bed a little while ago, and Max had been listening and occasionally laughing as Mikey and Chloe shared memories from their youth.  
Chloe turned and smiled, "I guess you're right, you want any help with cleanup Mikey?"  
The analyst laughed. "Nah, I'll just conscript Steph into helping me tomorrow, she owes it to me for introducing you guys." His expression became slightly more serious. "Really, thanks for being so cool... like, in general, and with her. She's been really caught up with work lately, some stuff's happening over at the DoD that's stressing her out I guess, I dunno, but it was really good for her to have some pain-free socializing."  
 _Well not quite pain-free._ Chloe thought.  
"You're a good friend Mikey." Max said, smiling gently. "Obviously we like her a lot too, she's welcome along any time we meet up, which I have a feeling is gonna be happening more often in the future." Chloe and Mikey stood up, chuckling slightly.  
"I hope so, now come on, I'll see you two out. You remember where the closet is Chloe?"  
Chloe and Max gave each other a look and laughed. " _Do_ I? Ya, I'll show Max." Mikey gave them a confused look of his own and made his way to the front door. Chloe began leading Max down the dimly lit hallway to the closet. Just as they stopped in front of it Max stumbled a little. _Shitshit._ Chloe reacted quickly, seizing the falling woman by wrapping her arms around her. A couple mumbled "Sorry"'s accompanied Max trying to regain her foot as Chloe held her. _Very very close and very very warm and that perfume and oh man oh jeez._  
"Uh. Chlo? You can... let go now." Max's voice, slightly muffled, came out of where Chloe held her to her chest. With a start Chloe let go and stepped back, thankful for the dim light as her face turned bright red. "Ahaha, yeah, yup, my bad. You okay?"  
"Ya I'm uh, fine. Just a little out of it." Max replied, fumbling a little getting her enormous parka on.  
Chloe reached over, "Here let me help." She gently guided Max's arms into the warm coat, and Max sighed contentedly as it enveloped her.  
Chloe grabbed her leather jacket and began to slip it on, while Max looked curiously into the closet.  
"Heey. There's a black trenchcoat in here. Just like the lady who gave you the movies earlier... and Steph had the USB stick you had... and you were acting weird to her at the start... was Steph the... the lady person?" Chloe froze. _God she's a good detective._ She had originally intended to tell Max all about it tomorrow but... something didn't feel right about outing Steph like that. Mikey had mentioned she had been stressed a lot from work, and having friends (or, at least one in Max) that she didn't associate with her work had been good for her. _Maybe it'd be best..._  
"Nah Max, that was just a coincidence. Why would the informant live with someone we know? Come on, let's go."  
"Hehe, okaay."

Mikey waved them goodbye as Chloe set her truck into reverse and pulled out.  
"Thanks for Dding Chlo." Max's voice came from the passenger seat, sounding bleary and sleepy.  
"Hey, no problem, thanks for coming with me." She smiled.  
Max's voice became more muffled as she sunk into the warm recesses of her parka. "Thanks for inviting me... I never really go out anymore it was really nice." The shorter woman suddenly sat up a bit. "Do you mind if I stay at your place tonight? I didn't expect to drink and I'm... not really great with dealing with hangovers. Sorry..."  
"No- Wait, not 'no' like you can't, you just don't need to apologize I get it! That's no problem Max." The other agent visibly relaxed and sunk back into the seat after Chloe's assurance.  
"Hehe, thanks Chlo." _God she gets giggly when she's wine drunk._ _Cute._ Chloe focused on driving as Max seemingly dozed off next to her.

She pulled into her apartment complex's driveway and shut off the truck as quietly as she could. _Not that there's any real quiet way to go about that._ Max still looked asleep. She got out and gently shut her drivers side door, and when to open Max's passenger seat. _Oh ya, out like a light._  
She reached across Max and clicked the seatbelt, carefully pulling it out from around the dozing woman.  
 _Now. Do I wake her?_ It felt like the reasonable thing to do, but looking at freckled, peacefully sleeping face Chloe just didn't have the heart. _Alright, big buff biker woman time.  
_ She leaned down _perfume again damnit_ and carefully looped one arm under the crook of Max's knee, and the other around the smaller woman's back, supporting her head with her upper arm. _Easy does it_. And gently extricated her from the car. Once she had cleared the doorway she nudged the passenger door closed with her foot. _And, clear. Now just up the stairs._  
Holding Max bridal style, she carefully made her way to the door, backing up and pushing her back pocket with her wallet in it onto the keycard reader, which thankfully decided to cooperate this time and flung the lobby door open.  
 _Both elevators out of order? You're kidding me._ It was only up to the third floor, but Chloe was _tired_. She glanced down at Max, considering waking her again. _Fucking damnit, why's she gotta be so cute._ Immediately defeated by the other woman's dozing face, Chloe trudged to the stairwell and pushed open the door with her foot. _Alright, let's go._ The trip up the stairs was unremarkable, aside from the curious elderly lady going out for a late night smoke, but Chloe had just gently shooshed her and smiled to show she didn't mean any offense. Finally they reached the threshold of Chloe's apartment. She quietly kicked off her shoes and made her way to her bedroom. She set Max down on the bed partly upright and started pulling off the agent's parka, causing her to finally stir.  
"Huh, Chlo? We're back?" She said groggily.  
"Oh, uh, yeah. I carried you back."  
"What? You should've woken me up." She didn't sound angry, just confused, and on the verge of falling back to sleep.  
"Don't worry about it Max, here." She finished pulling off the parka and gently pulled her blankets over Max. "Just call out if you need me, okay?"  
"Okay..." Max snuggled into the warmth of the sheets. "Wait, isn't this your room? Where are you gonna sleep?"  
Chloe smiled. "I'll just be on the couch Max, it's no trouble."  
"Nononooo I don't want you to be uncomfy..." Max pouted at her. _Oh this girl is drunk alright._ "You can come in here with me, it's okaay."  
 _Guh, tempting, but that'd be more than a little fucked up._  
"It's alright Max, you go to sleep now, I'll see you in the morning okay?" Max pouted at her for a moment longer before snuggling back into the covers.  
"Okaaaay. Good night."  
"Night, Max."  
Chloe gently closed the door, leaving it open just a crack, and grabbed some spare covers for the couch. _I had fun tonight._ The thought came to her head unbidden. She really had. Sure, video games were fun, watching movies and researching old cool shit was fun. But this was _fun_. She hung out with like minded people, had laughs, shared stories. It was a fun night, and Chloe couldn't remember the last time she could truly say she had had one of those. _Huh. Nice._


End file.
